Modern Combat Walker - WIP - Feedback needed

Dethling

Hi there, 

I'm currently working on a modern combat walker for my portfolio. I already finished the modelling and are now working on the textures. 
Unfortunately textures are my weak spot and so I'm looking for feedback, critics and maybe tips and tricks how I can improve them and push them to the next level. 
I based the mech on modern military vehicles (Fennek, Leopard, Apache etc.) and want to go into a realistic direction with the textures. 

Here are some Images of the textures from Marmorset:


I would be happy about any feedback you can provide. Thanks in advance. 

Zi0

I think its a cool project but overall the mech feels very flat. Every part has the same green material with procedural generated dirt around it. A lot of details that you already have get lost that way.

Take a look at this Apache, the whole thing is green but there is a lot of stuff going on, blackish dirt around the rivets etc. I think using a more vibrant shade of green would help as well.  Other then that I find the cabin part a bit cheap looking, the 3 windows dont read well on such a giant mech. The rockets pods are quite small and hidden, its hard to notice them. In general I would suggest trying to enrich the Mechs silhouette by creating a AA weapon of top of it and adding smoke launchers in different places. Also add some cool cameras, so far there is only one, I would imagine such a huge mech would have a couple. Maybe add the  RPG nets on different places as well instead of only on the back?

You should take another look at tanks etc and see what kind of cool details they have on their turrets etc, soft/hard kill systems, radars etc. and add them to your mech.

sacboi

"I find the cabin part a bit cheap looking, the 3 windows dont read well on such a giant mech. The rockets pods are quite small and hidden, its hard to notice them. In general I would suggest trying to enrich the Mechs silhouette by creating a AA weapon of top of it and adding smoke launchers in different places. Also add some cool cameras, so far there is only one, I would imagine such a huge mech would have a couple. Maybe add the  RPG nets on different places as well instead of only on the back?"

This.

I'd also suggest taking workflow inspiration from paid resources as well, probably stuff authored by Tim Bergholz, for a start.

His mech series I believe will definitely push your potential showcase addition into the stratosphere let alone "next level" anyhow from previous experience the material / texture phase, especially.

https://www.artstation.com/artwork/4VEW1

Dethling

Thanks a lot for the feedback.
I worked on the textures a little bit and pushed it further without (I think so) fall into the "edge wear EVERYWHERE" zone. 


I focused on building a strong base texture setup (using procedural details etc.) so I can share these with all the texture sheets of the mech. 
Once I have the base set-up done, I plan to go into each part and do the unique pass, to add more details (e.g. the different shades and dirt ZiO mentioned).  

Regarding additional mesh details, I thought about adding a hardkill system, but couldn't get a working design which also looked good. Currently not planning to add additional details to the mesh, but I will keep it on my screen for later. 

sacboi

"[...]without (I think so) fall into the "edge wear EVERYWHERE" zone."

Actually, in a real world context it's very much a common occurrence, particularly for armored service ordnance of whatever description.   

As an aside, had served with a force recon unit equipped with both wheeled and tracked vehicles, operating alongside SF back in the day so it never ceased too amaze the sheer degree of damage our equipment was routinely subjected to after weeks or even months spent in the field. Now subtlety is all well and good when used effectively however your model I guess would scale at around 5m tall...

Anyway in my opinion, may present a challenge to convey the object's perceived bulk to an audience, without logically placed slightly exaggerated wear 'n tear. 

Dethling

I agree, that military vehicles can be realy damaged (I serverd on a Leo1 myself) and I also want to add this to my model. Maybe I'm to cautious o this regards. I will try to push it more with the next itteration.

And your size guess is not that far of. The mech has a height of around 6.5 meters.

Dethling

Added some more colors and dirt, edge wear etc. today

Dethling

Did some rework on the texture, especially the wear and did soem presentation tests:

Zi0

I think you need to play around with colours a bit more, the light green isnt really working imo. I think that a darker green would work the best but more vibrant than you had before, something like this https://www.artstation.com/artwork/AWwgm

Dethling

Thank you for the feedback. I worked on the colors the last days and added black parts as well as making the green more saturated: What do you think of the newer version? 

(I don't want to go to dark with the green as I want to stay close to the real world color of the german army) 

Zi0

Yeah I think it looks better this way, the red accent color is a bit weird tho and a bit toyish looking. What would you think of adding a camo to the mech? The same one that Germany/Netherlands uses on their vehicles (I grew up in The Netherlands so I have a weak spot for that camo)
To stick with the German army theme, maybe loose the yellow stripes in order for the red white ones? Also maybe add some of these decals to the mech, I noticed that you have a couple already but since the mech is huge they get kind of lost.

Dethling

I was a tanker in the german army during my mandatory service, so I know exactly what you mean with "weak spot".
I tryed out to add a camo pattern to the mech, but unfortunately it does what it is supposed to do and broke up the shapes of the mech. But this was with the old light and color, maybe I should give it a try again (even if it's only for a "variant").

I like the idea with the red/white stripes instead of the yellow ones, will try it out today.
For the decals I have to look how to add more without it looking silly (and without getting mirror issues on the legs, as they are mirrored.
Thanks again for the feedback, much appreciated.

Commiesaur

I feel like the left guns/double guns could use some much heavier wear and tear. As well as being barrels firing some super heavy rounds all the time, I imagine that mech bumping into all sorts of trees/obstacles while turning or moving on training exercises. I don't think it makes sense for the wear to be heavier on the internal body and basically clean on the part that's much more exposed. Maybe some scratch grunge maps across some of those boxes on the double gun arm as well?

Dethling

Valid Point, for some reason I excluded the boxes from the wear & tear layer of the paint, will fix it asap!

Dethling

Tried to work in the feedback, started with the double barrel edge wear and then tried to change the yellow markings to red/white. Unfortunately it didn't look good (the yellow just added another color, even if it's only a few pixels and to make the red/white signs work, I would have to add additional geometry and I don't wanted to redo all the UVs and textures again). 

For the decals I tried some license plates, but they look not believable on a mech, so I kept the current amount of decals (sorry ZiO) and focused more on the presentation (light/camera etc.)

Vertrucio

In terms of design, I'd like to see some more rounded forms and edges as contrast and to break up the overall hard edges everywhere. It's so hard edged that it looks uniformly hard edged in a designed for low poly game art way. This is especially apparent on the lower legs.

Texture-wise, break up the weathering, especially the dirt/mud into splotches. Either paint out parts manually or just drop in a multiply noise layer into the mask.

Dethling

For the design I took inspiration from modern military vehicles (e.g. Fennek, Puma, Leopard, Abrams) which don't really have many round forms. 
The weathering was indeed a big point for me and I put a lot of thought into it. Due to the size of the mech the weathering/dirt is not so visible. Again I took a look at modern military vehicles (and got some experience myself from my time at the german armed forces). Beside the wheel /trackarea there is not much large dirt areas on a vehicle. Also keep in mind that this mech is something about 6 Meters high, so mud will not splat as high and concentrate around the foot soles. 

Vertrucio

Doesn't matter how high it splats, what matters is if it looks good. What wear is there is too uniform.

Dethling

Sure it has to look good, but it also have to be believable. My goal with this one was to get it realisitc and that I leaned more toward realism then style. I also already used grunge maps and painted out some areas to break up the wear & dirt. If you give me an example of where it looks to uniform for you, I can take a look there and fix it.

Dethling

And finally done, texture completed, renders done. 
Feel free to comment and give feedback, while not for this project anymore I will definetly add it to my next project. 

More pictures and a marmorset viewer scene can be found on my artstation profile:
 ArtStation - Modern Combat Walker (Mech), Frerk Guentzler